Bless Me, Ultima is based off of coming of age novel by Rudolfo Anaya. The novel contains numerous symbols and themes that examine topics ranging from identity discoveries to the question of after-life. These themes may be thoroughly examined in a novel but not in a 106 minute movie. I am not criticizing the movie because it's not faithful to the book (I actually did not enjoyed the book), but because the film does not seem to stand on its own without background of the book. This leads to many problems throughout the film.
Many of scenes and events such as Ultima's black magic and Antonio's brother departing are left empty. We do see Franklin's use of Antonio's point of view shots and reaction shot of Antonio, which may mean that Franklin is trying to emphasize Antonio's internal growth, but as a film, the images need to speak more meanings than a frozen face of Antonio. The audience is left with Antonio's bad acting. I don't mean to be harsh but the actor of Antonio, Luke Ganalon, acted more forcefully and not naturally throughout the film. Antonio almost appeared to be lacking emotions. There's no sense of melodrama that could move the audience, but just a plain acting that appear to be reciting a script. So adding the bad acting and empty still shots of Antonio's reaction, the audience don't get the growth and changes of Antonio, but a feel of just a spectator watching a "set-up" scene.
Another problem with the movie is cramming. Throughout the film, I never felt the building up but merely a skimming of themes. Just to name a few, there are Antonio struggling in dominantly white school, confusion over Catholicism and Ultima's magic, and Antonio's identity, but the movie seem to be really good at focusing on tensions between Tenorio and Ultima. For the rest of the themes, the movie just introduces them without analyzing them. For example, what is the point of introducing characters such as Florence and the "gang" at church? They merely seem to have done nothing to move the story further. We don't get any backgrounds or any explanations of the gang but just scenes of them teasing Antonio. For Florence, he seems to be just a "throw-in" to the film. The first time we were introduced to Florence, he was just a kid who was also teased and seemed self-conscious, but then the second time, we see Florence suddenly standing firmly to his belief that he has no sins. Really! Wow! Maybe this is to show another "witnessing" by Antonio, but the movie's cramming makes characters like Florence not credible.In total, all of these introductions may have been intended to show Antonio's struggle, but so what? If I have not read the book, I wouldn't even thought that Antonio's self-struggle was that important theme because I would be distracted by another scenes of Tenorio threatening Ultima.
This brings me up to another problem. The transitions. I'm not sure if I ever felt a smooth roller-coaster tension, but instead felt just a bumpy ride. There are happy scenes. Many of them. For example, we see Antonio skipping second grade because his teacher believes Antonio is intelligent and then boom, we are introduced to a dark scene of Ultima in danger. It's like jumping into an icy pool after a fine spa. Many of the scenes consisted of happy scenes with music blasting in high pitches that you may think maybe Antonio is happy or what not and then it's in some intense moment with some speedy music tempo, you're just like, oh- no, what's wrong now after a happy moment?. This leaves the scenes to never build up, but keeps on crashing until an awkward ending.
However, most of these problems are the result of mediocre screenplay. I don't blame the director (but ironically, the scriptwriter is also the director!). The director does a great job attempting to visually paint the film. The theme of nature is very evident. Many of the long shots with voice over of Antonio sounds and appears poetic. Even for scenes with story, the nature seem to smoothly converge with the story. The scene where Antonio and his family gather for harvest is beautiful. The lights are brightly lit enough to illustrate the happy moments occurring while not lit enough to over expose the audience with "eye-hurting" sunlight. Moreover, the scene includes slightly lowered angle shots that converge the subjects (family) with the ground-like nature.
Moreover, the director does a great job alleviating the choppy screenplay. For example, Narciso's death was extremely abrupt. After Narciso is left drunk and alone, we get a close up shot of Antonio, revealing Antonio's reflection. Then next second, we see Antonio running to his house at rainy afternoon, and then suddenly, BAM, Narciso is shot by Tenorio. The pace itself is extremely abrupt and unnatural, and I blame the screenplay, but the director makes the scene flow smoothly. He achieves this by first slowly zooming into Antonio and then uses a soundtrack of chilling whistle that seems like Antonio is suddenly alert and realizing something. Next, when Antonio turns around and discovers Tenorio about to shoot Narciso, we see them in a long distant shot that illustrates the scene in Antonio's point of view. In total, this makes the unexpected gun shot not a result of bad screenplay but as a part of spontaneous life: Antonio is about to witness another tragedy that he was never ready for.
In summary, Bless Me, Ultima is a beautifully shot movie that is more like a visual cliff note of the book. I would enjoy the movie if there is a strong focus or some kind of theme that keeps occurring throughout the movie, but instead, I am left with some "trial tastes" of diverse and emotional themes about Antonio's coming of age.
Many of scenes and events such as Ultima's black magic and Antonio's brother departing are left empty. We do see Franklin's use of Antonio's point of view shots and reaction shot of Antonio, which may mean that Franklin is trying to emphasize Antonio's internal growth, but as a film, the images need to speak more meanings than a frozen face of Antonio. The audience is left with Antonio's bad acting. I don't mean to be harsh but the actor of Antonio, Luke Ganalon, acted more forcefully and not naturally throughout the film. Antonio almost appeared to be lacking emotions. There's no sense of melodrama that could move the audience, but just a plain acting that appear to be reciting a script. So adding the bad acting and empty still shots of Antonio's reaction, the audience don't get the growth and changes of Antonio, but a feel of just a spectator watching a "set-up" scene.
Another problem with the movie is cramming. Throughout the film, I never felt the building up but merely a skimming of themes. Just to name a few, there are Antonio struggling in dominantly white school, confusion over Catholicism and Ultima's magic, and Antonio's identity, but the movie seem to be really good at focusing on tensions between Tenorio and Ultima. For the rest of the themes, the movie just introduces them without analyzing them. For example, what is the point of introducing characters such as Florence and the "gang" at church? They merely seem to have done nothing to move the story further. We don't get any backgrounds or any explanations of the gang but just scenes of them teasing Antonio. For Florence, he seems to be just a "throw-in" to the film. The first time we were introduced to Florence, he was just a kid who was also teased and seemed self-conscious, but then the second time, we see Florence suddenly standing firmly to his belief that he has no sins. Really! Wow! Maybe this is to show another "witnessing" by Antonio, but the movie's cramming makes characters like Florence not credible.In total, all of these introductions may have been intended to show Antonio's struggle, but so what? If I have not read the book, I wouldn't even thought that Antonio's self-struggle was that important theme because I would be distracted by another scenes of Tenorio threatening Ultima.
This brings me up to another problem. The transitions. I'm not sure if I ever felt a smooth roller-coaster tension, but instead felt just a bumpy ride. There are happy scenes. Many of them. For example, we see Antonio skipping second grade because his teacher believes Antonio is intelligent and then boom, we are introduced to a dark scene of Ultima in danger. It's like jumping into an icy pool after a fine spa. Many of the scenes consisted of happy scenes with music blasting in high pitches that you may think maybe Antonio is happy or what not and then it's in some intense moment with some speedy music tempo, you're just like, oh- no, what's wrong now after a happy moment?. This leaves the scenes to never build up, but keeps on crashing until an awkward ending.
However, most of these problems are the result of mediocre screenplay. I don't blame the director (but ironically, the scriptwriter is also the director!). The director does a great job attempting to visually paint the film. The theme of nature is very evident. Many of the long shots with voice over of Antonio sounds and appears poetic. Even for scenes with story, the nature seem to smoothly converge with the story. The scene where Antonio and his family gather for harvest is beautiful. The lights are brightly lit enough to illustrate the happy moments occurring while not lit enough to over expose the audience with "eye-hurting" sunlight. Moreover, the scene includes slightly lowered angle shots that converge the subjects (family) with the ground-like nature.
Moreover, the director does a great job alleviating the choppy screenplay. For example, Narciso's death was extremely abrupt. After Narciso is left drunk and alone, we get a close up shot of Antonio, revealing Antonio's reflection. Then next second, we see Antonio running to his house at rainy afternoon, and then suddenly, BAM, Narciso is shot by Tenorio. The pace itself is extremely abrupt and unnatural, and I blame the screenplay, but the director makes the scene flow smoothly. He achieves this by first slowly zooming into Antonio and then uses a soundtrack of chilling whistle that seems like Antonio is suddenly alert and realizing something. Next, when Antonio turns around and discovers Tenorio about to shoot Narciso, we see them in a long distant shot that illustrates the scene in Antonio's point of view. In total, this makes the unexpected gun shot not a result of bad screenplay but as a part of spontaneous life: Antonio is about to witness another tragedy that he was never ready for.
In summary, Bless Me, Ultima is a beautifully shot movie that is more like a visual cliff note of the book. I would enjoy the movie if there is a strong focus or some kind of theme that keeps occurring throughout the movie, but instead, I am left with some "trial tastes" of diverse and emotional themes about Antonio's coming of age.